“Contemporary art galleries continueto be the platform for many emergingartists,” says Jeanine Messeguer, directorof the Whistler Contemporary Gallery.Searching for these rising stars of the artworld is an exciting endeavour, and thegallery owners travel widely to visit manyof the major art fairs to discover new workby emerging artists, such as Jay Kelly. “Atfirst glance, he convinces viewers thathis medium is paint rather than paper,”Messeguer says. “With closer study,they uncover the paper intricacies of hissubjects through minute variations incolour, shape and size, whilst fragmentedsentences echo the tone and theme of thecollage.”Mixed-media artist Jallen is intriguedwith nature and chaos. She uses anaddition and subtraction process of paintto create her artwork and often introducesuntamed scratches carved directly intothe panel, resulting in works displayingboth a natural and abstracted character.Collected by both locals and internationalvisitors, her ginormous mixed-mediabutterfly paintings embody themetamorphism that her beautiful subjectsundertake in real life.

Eleven years ago, Mark Richards worked
as an engineer in high tech when he had
the spark of an idea to create fine art
using the latest digital photography tools.

Taking a massive risk, Richards quit his
career and moved out West. He developed
a completely unique artistic process and
opened the Mark Richards Gallery, where
his exquisite landscapes are featured.

His piece “Soo Valley,” shot in the valley
north of Whistler, was taken after the
first snowfall, and shows the transition
from fall to winter.

Richards combines his digital
photography with painting, using
electronic pens on a tablet. His
photographs of vibrant West Coast and
East Coast landscapes are transformed
through the process, taking on a lush,
painterly quality.